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Currently, I am considering 1 out of the following 2 android phones.

  • Samsung Galaxy S
  • Nexus S (Not available in my country yet)

I was wondering, has anyone used the above 2 android phones before? What is the significant difference of these 2 phones, in term of software and hardware?

p/s Is there any online store where I can buy Nexus S from if I decide to have one? I am from Malaysia.

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1 Answer

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Hardware wise, they are almost identical (at least to some of the US versions of the Galaxy S) but there are some differences

Some of the differences are:

  • The Galaxy S has 3 hardware buttons (Menu, Home and Back), the Nexus S has 4 (Back, Menu, Search and Home). These are the buttons below the screen.
  • The Nexus S has slightly curved glass
  • The Nexus S has an NFC chip
  • The Nexus S DOES NOT have a microSD slot.
  • The Nexus S has a Flash for the rear 5MP camera
  • The Galaxy S supports Bluetooth 3.0, Nexus S, Bluetooth 2.1

In terms of Software:

  • The Galaxy S uses the Samsung RFS for a lot of the file system, the Nexus S uses EXT4
    • EXT4 performs a lot better then RFS does
  • The Galaxy S runs the Samsung TouchWiz 2.2 (Froyo) modified version of android, the Nexus S runs "Stock" Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)

Here is a screenshot of the i9000

Samsung i9000

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My SGS Vibrant has 4 hardware buttons, and no d-pad. I assume it's the Epic 4G that has the d-pad, since the others don't have physical keyboards. – Matthew Read♦ Feb 18 '11 at 14:24
the international SGS (i9000) has the d-pad. which i assumed what was meant by Galaxy S, because the the poster is from Malaysia. – Ryan Conrad Feb 18 '11 at 15:36
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It's NOT a d-pad (on the international version at the very least). It's a single "home" button. (@Yan - a d-pad implies 4 directional buttons, so yes, like in a video game controller.) – Alconja Feb 23 '11 at 4:37
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@Ryan Conrad If by D-PAD you mean that square-ish button in the center, to my knowledge it is not a D-PAD, but a single (home) button. The Canadian Bell Vibrant (which is the variant I own), is more or less identical to the International galaxy S (there may be a few differing internal components, based on the SD card failure rate in this version), and on it that center button most definitely is not a D-PAD... Oh by the way, the touchwiz version is actually 3.0, because I guess previous samsung phones had older iterations of the interface or something. But everything else you said stan – JBailey Feb 23 '11 at 14:35
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@Ryan Conrad: After the last update to Froyo 2.2.1, I think the performance issues of the Galaxy S are complete gone. At least, I don't notice any lag any more. – Edelcom Mar 16 '11 at 17:22
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